Epilogue

This blog is now on indefinite hiatus. One of the oddities of the Blogger platform, though, is that if a blog lies idle for long enough the system seems to "eat" the final post - it seems to do this only once, no matter how long the blog lies fallow, but it's just an oddity.

As a consequence of this, this post is serving as a placeholder to protect the "real" final post from being consumed in this manner. One day, this post may disappear in the ether...

Looking To A Future

Although I'm closing the door on my gaming career for now, I'm not locking it tightly - there may come a time at which I resume. I foresee a few possibilities:

Perhaps most likely is a one-shot game. It's not entirely impossible that this will take the form of me running a game (although I'd have to be asked, which again is unlikely). More likely, I think, is if I find myself invited to a game. That would be good.

In terms of campaign play, I'm done for any foreseeable length of time. There are two real possibilities there, I think, both of which are fairly distant: it's possible that one or both of Funsize or Surprise! may one day become interested in playing a game; it's also likely that in a few years time I'll naturally find myself with a bit more free time (or at least usable free time), such that I can maybe consider finding a new group. But both of those are sufficiently distant that I'm disinclined to give them any further consideration.

And that, essentially, is that.

THE END?

Gaming in 2024

2024 has been the year in which my gaming career effectively ended, at least for the foreseeable future - with the end of "Isles of Dread" I bowed to the inevitable and accepted that that group had run its course, but with no intention of seeking a new group and starting again.

In terms of purchases, there have been no physical RPG products at all (my update for last year said that that was the case then, but then contradicated itself by noting that I purchased one book; this year there really was none). I did, however, buy a fair amount of PDF material - completing a collection of "Dark Sun" PDFs, and two Kickstarters for "Tales of the Valiant".

In terms of reading, I think the only thing I actually got through was the aforementioned "Phandelver and Beyond", which I'm afraid I cannot recommend.

Looking forward, I really don't expect much to change, though we'll see. The one thing I am mulling over is picking up some more "D&D Classics" PDFs - the "Ravenloft" setting, some of the classic BECMI and/or 1st Ed adventures, and the bundle of the Historical Reference books. On the other hand, I don't foresee any use for any of these (or, frankly, the rest of my library), so I'm fighting the urge towards completeness on this one.

Favourite Campaign Endings

Over the years I've run a great many campaigns, and they've all come to an end. But only some of them have come to a good end. Some of my favourites, therefore:

All four of my "great campaigns" had strong endings. The first of these, the unnamed Tolkien rip-off campaign, came to an end with an epic confrontation between our heroes and the risen lich Pelenor Corariath, a battle for the ages that left the world forever changed. There's not too much more to say about this one, especially since it was so long ago - sword battled spells, and in the end the bad guy made a very satisfying 'thump' as he hit the ground.

The "Rivers of Time" campaign had the most unusual of the endings - this one came to a bittersweet conclusion as the world came to its end. The year was 2150, and our heroes were called to meet one of a former childe of theirs for a final toast. It was very quiet and contemplative, and brought together everything from five years of gaming to that point. (Sadly, that campaign had long-since outlived its best times. But the ending was solid.)

The "Shackled City" campaign ended with another great and epic battle, this time with the corrupted angel Adimarchus. As was fitting for the highest-level campaign I ever ran, this was the most epic, knock-down battle I've ever run. At the end, the PCs were victorious, but only just.

"The Eberron Code" came to another great battle, this time with the imprisoned Bel Shalor, the Shadow in the Flame. The stakes for this one were dramatic - win, and the Silver Flame would be cleansed of the corruption that had infested it; lose, and the demon would be freed on the world. This conclusion was notable for the death of a PC and his subsequent refusal to return to life, and that fact that it had a proper epilogue for all the PCs - something I highly recommend.

There are also a small number of noteworthy endings that are not from the "great campaigns". "Mists of Lamordia" saw the PCs battling Adam for their freedom from Lamordia (and Ravenloft as a whole). This one saw one of the PCs tempted with the chance to become the new Dark Lord (a role he eventually took), saw a sudden but frankly obvious betrayal as Victor Mordenheim turned against the heroes, and saw the battle hinge on the discovery of Adam's crucial weakness. This wasn't the greatest campaign, being hampered by the format, by Covid, and by a long-term player absence, but the ending was really good.

"Isles of Dread" had a decent ending, except that the climax came in the session before the last and the final session was then a brief epilogue. Taken as a pair, those sessions were solid; individually they didn't really work. Still, the battle against Red Bethena was fun to play out, and neatly encapsulated everything in the campaign.

Finally, "A Quest for Memory" had a noteworthy ending mostly because I reused the same "Forge of the Fire Giants" dungeon that provoked a TPK when running "Storm King's Thunder" itself. This time, the PCs were able to battle their way to victory, although it was a close-run thing. In truth I don't consider this one of the "great campaigns" and don't consider it a top-tier ending, but it's certainly interesting that the same dungeon run with two different groups had such different outcomes.

Experia - Goddess of Heroes

D&D isn't really made for monotheism - for the most part the game basically assumes some sort of barely-present polytheistic world view where everyone just kind of gets along. (There is potentially a storm coming there, as differing portrayals of religions gets labelled "problematic" the same way as portrayals or race have been. Or maybe not - we'll see. Anyway...)

These days, if I were to craft a monotheistic setting, the way I would do it would be as follows:

• Firstly, divorce all PC capabilities from any named higher power - Clerics get their power directly from their Domains, Paladins from the Oaths, and so forth. So no alignment restrictions, no expected tenets or behaviours, etc.
• I would then introduce a single deity, Experia, a goddess with no alignment, no temples, or tenets, and indeed no worshippers as such.
• However, what Experia is interested in is heroes. Where she empowers certain beings, her Chosen, as heroes, beings who are uniquely capable of learning and growing in an exponential matter by the completion of heroic tasks. In effect, they are the only beings who can gain Experience Points.

I suspect that the world most likely to come from this would turn out to be something like "Masters of the Universe" - a number of brightly drawn heroes, a mostly content populace around that, and several forces keen to tear it all down. Of course, combine that with the notion of having several factions (Humans, Elves, Drow, Orcs, Giants, Undead...) and the setting more or less writes itself.

Though I probably wouldn't include either Orcs or Goblins nowadays - if I included nonhuman species at all (very doubtful), I'd replace those with Goliaths.

The Thing I Never Did

I have two unrealised ambitions, one of which is to one day see my name in print. As time goes by this seems less and less likely, but it's actually the more likely of the two at this time. But that's a topic for another place.

However, in terms of RPGs that gives rise to the biggest thing I never did in gaming - I would have liked to put together something and have it published.

There were a few steps towards this, but they never paid off:

• About a quarter of a century ago White Wolf put out an open call for freelancers, to which I made a submission. I actually got a reply back saying they'd be in touch, but it never came to anything. It didn't help that the email I gave them stopped working not too long thereafter. Oh well.
• During the 3.5e days, and during the pomp of Dungeon magazine, I wrote a handful of short adventures for publication. In each case these had a single draft of the right length, but I never got so far as sending an enquiry. That's probably just as well - looking back, they're not actually terribly good. Had I known then what I know now...
• Most recently, I wrote up the "Isles of Dread" as though it was intended for publication (although in reality is was never going to be). That was an interesting experience, and I'm pleased with the result, but was never going to submit it anywhere. Plus, it became rather more bespoke than would really be appropriate.

So there it is - three steps towards doing something, but nothing that actually went anywhere. And, of course, that door is now effectively closed by the new edition, by Dungeon magazine being shuttered, and, most obviously, by my gaming career coming to an end.

The Great Secrets

I've never written these down anyway, so in order that they don't get forgotten, here are the three great secrets at the heart of my home setting of Terafa:

• The Dragonborn origin story doesn't fit with the creation myths of the other races, and indeed with the known age of the world. The reason for this is that they're not from the past of the world, but rather from the far future - the devastation their seers foresaw was actually the end of the world, and their "Return to the Egg" saw their elite using flawed technology that actually cast them far back in time.
• The origin of the split between the elves and the drow was actually due to the latter choosing to share the secrets of magic with humans. Everything since then is propaganda. Unfortunately, so pervasive has become the propaganda, and so much bitterness has grown up that the drow are now enemies of all surface-dwellers.
• Choriam, god of rulership, is actually a usurper. The true god of rulership is trapped in the Fastness of the Divine, with all knowledge of him erased by the death of Memory, the lost deity. This is also why the pantheon in unbalanced, and why the dominant mythology all feels 'off'.

But, of course, it's all subject to change if I ever get back to it!